Alumna Carolyn Pratt to Present Women’s Words Set to Music
	Carolyn Pratt		SEPTEMBER 18, 2000--Soprano Carolyn Pratt '79 will be the center of a whirl of collaboration Friday, September 22, when she returns to campus for a recital called Women’s Words: The Poetry of Women Set to Music. The concert will feature the poetry of four women--Jane Kenyon, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, and Anna Akhmatova--set to music by a variety of composers. Three members of the conservatory staff and faculty--pianist Daniel Michalak, accompanist; cellist Andor Toth, professor of chamber music; and violist Peter Slowik, professor of viola--will perform with Pratt. Sponsors of the recital are the Conservatory of Music, Women’s Studies Program, Department of English, and Alumni Association. The recital--free and open to the public--begins at 8 P.M. in Kulas Recital Hall. William Bolcom’s setting of Jane Kenyon’s Briefly It Enters is the centerpiece of the recital. The program features two settings of Anna Akhmatova's poetry, one by the contemporary composer John Tavener for soprano and cello, and the other by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. Kenyon studied and translated Akhmatova’s poetry for 10 years, regarding the poet as her mentor. Kenyon was also an enthusiast of the great American poet Emily Dickinson. Six Dickinson poems are presented, set by four American composers. Michalak has set two poems by African-American Maya Angelou. The final piece is an area premiere of William Bolcom’s Let Evening Come, for soprano, piano and viola. The three-song cycle sets Angelou, Dickinson, and the title piece by Kenyon. Pratt, a history and music-education double-degree graduate of Oberlin and Master of Music graduate of the University of South Florida, has performed on the operatic and concert stage throughout the Midwest, appearing with the Minnesota opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
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